(
Radio
Corporation of
America) Once the leading company in radio and TV, today, RCA is a licensed trademark for music and consumer products. Initially founded in 1919, RCA was backed by the most powerful industrial firms in the country. GE was the majority shareholder along with Westinghouse, AT&T and United Fruit Company. In 1932, RCA became an independent company.
RCA Commercialized Radio and TV
In 1926, RCA founded NBC, which was the first radio network in the U.S. Under the direction of David Sarnoff, who was with the company in various roles for more than 50 years, RCA turned experimental radio and TV into very successful commercial products.
Prior to the 1970s, RCA was the leader in home entertainment. However, competition from Japanese manufacturers in consumer electronics, combined with a raft of unrelated endeavors in mainframe computers, rental cars, frozen foods, carpets, book publishing and real estate caused the company to fracture. Some were successful, others were not, and in 1986, RCA was acquired by General Electric.
GE kept NBC and integrated the defense and aerospace operations into GE Aerospace. It sold consumer electronics to Thomson in France and sold or separated other holdings. RCA Labs was transferred to Stanford Research Institute and became the Sarnoff Corporation. NBC evolved into NBCUniversal, and RCA eventually became a licensed trademark. See
RCA connector,
RCA computers and
video/TV history.